In developing countries and emerging markets, ever more people suffer from hypertension, diabetes, cancer and respiratory illnesses. Some are affected by more than one chronic or non-communicable disease (NCD). Masses of patients must manage complex conditions for the rest of their lives. Those who are financially well-off have access to medical services, can afford treatments and find it easier to adopt healthy lifestyles. Education helps to understand the situation – whereas fast food, soft drinks and lack of exercise compound the problems.

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last contributed to D+C/E+Z in spring 2018 as a doctor who returned to Bangladesh from Britain during the liberation war in 1971 and started the rural health-care organisation Gonoshasthaya Kendra (People’s Health Centre).